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Phil Matera
The younger brother of Wally Matera and Peter Matera made a name for himself as a prolific goalscorer. While Peter made his name with electrifying runs on a wing, Phil spent the majority of his career closer to the goals, having an impact through immense tackling pressure as well as his obvious scoring ability. West Coast career Phil joined Peter at West Coast at the end of the 1995 season after Fremantle traded the rights to him, along with a top-three pick, for the serviceable David Hynes. The diminutive goalsneak made his debut against Geelong at Subiaco early in 1996, alongside another fresh-faced young debutant in Ben Cousins. Just two weeks later he announced himself to the AFL world with a haul of 5 goals against Melbourne at Princes Park. However, after 1 goal in the next two weeks he was sent back to South Freo, where he stayed for the rest of the year. That was the last time the Bulldogs saw a lot of the younger Matera. He kicked 30 goals in 19 games in his second season, with his performances including consecutives bags of 4 goals early in the year, and 3 goals against North Melbourne in a semi-final. 1998 was less successful, kicking just 13 goals from 12 games and getting sent back to South Fremantle on several occasions. In 1999 Matera formed an extremely successful partnership with newly-arrived spearhead Scott Cummings. Feeding at the feet of the burly Cummings, “Fido” kicked 3 or more goals on no less than 11 occasions during the season, including a best-afield 5 goal effort against the Bulldogs, and finished with 51 goals for the year. The partnership continued in 2000, with the duo bursting out of the blocks in the season-opener against North at the MCG. Matera kicked a then-career-high 6 goals and Cummings added 5. Cummings ultimately missed a fair chunk of the season due to injury and as a result Matera became more of a focal-point, and ended up pipping the full-forward for the goalkicking award with 49 goals to Cummings’ 47. When Cummings fell out of favour in 2001 Matera gained a new offsider, the human wrecking-ball Troy Wilson. Injury problems limited Fido to just 31 goals from 16 games for the season, but he returned with a bang in 2002, kicking 46 goals for the season to win his second club goalkicking award. In the final home-and-away round he equalled his career-high with 6 goals as West Coast upset North Melbourne to scrape into the finals. Unfortunately he was held goal-less the following week for just the second time in the year as Essendon knocked the Eagles out of the finals. With Wilson out of the side for most of 2003 the pint-sized Matera became an unlikely spearhead, a role he would hold for the remainder of his career. The tactic paid immediate dividends, with Fido setting a new career-high with 7 goals against the Saints early in the year, and following it up with another 5 against Adelaide the following week. He kicked another 6 against Carlton and a few more hauls of 5 and ended up with a massive 62 goals for the season. Matera was rewarded for the best year of his career with selection in a forward pocket in the All-Australian side. He backed up in 2004 with another 61 goals, including another half-dozen total against Richmond. However, he was controversially left out of the All-Australian squad as selectors opted to name Brisbane midfielder Luke Power in a forward pocket. Matera struggled with injury throughout 2005. Although his 38 goals were good enough to win him a fifth club goalscoring title, it was down on past years. Fido limped into the finals, suffered a groin injury the first-up win over Sydney and missed the preliminary final win against Adelaide. Named to return for the grand final, Matera was ruled out by the club’s medical staff and replaced in the final side by Kasey Green. The history books will show that West Coast, without their two leading scorers for the season (Quinten Lynch also missed the game after being dropped earlier in the finals series), lost by less than a goal. During the following offseason, Matera announced his retirement due to a chronic hip injury. He finished his career behind only Peter Sumich on the club’s all-time goalkicking table. He also held the somewhat unfortunate record of having played the most games for West Coast without obtaining a premiership medal, before being overtaken by Matt Priddis. Stats Links http://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/P/Phillip_Matera.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Matera http://www.wafl.com.au/players/view/133 Matera, Phil Matera, Phil Matera, Phil Matera, Phil